Building Institutional Bridges: A Systematic Literature Review of Black Student Experiences in Summer Bridge Programs

• In Event: Creating Community: Student Support Networks for Black Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Predominantly White Institutions

Abstract

Our paper explores the ways in which Summer Bridge Programs (SBP) have been an academic and social entry point for students as they enter higher education, specifically Black students. The purpose of SBP is to offer extensive college readiness and support for underprepared students in college (Cabrera et al, 2013). Literature has indicated that SBP are viewed as institutional inventions programs for students to gain critical academic and social resources to be successful in college (Suzuki et al., 2013).
Our paper utilizes Critical Race Theory (CRT) and counterstoryelling as a theoretical framework to examine how the recent and historical literature on Black students experiences in SBP. This systematic literature review seeks to examine what ways can CRT extend the existing SBP literature in creating an equitable and sustainable process to support students' transitional needs? Aligned with CRT’s literature on storytelling and counternarratives, this work is theoretically grounded to investigate the existing bodies of literature on SBP and the authors offer professional and personal narratives of their SBP involvement.

This systematic literature review aimed to (1) understand the history of SBP and its contributions to college readiness, and (2) understand particular experiences of Black students who are participating in these programs as a component of their higher education transition. By reviewing six articles, the authors use various electronic databases (i.e., academic journal sites) based on citation use, explicit research, and work on Black students SBP participation, and historical SBP sources for our review. The authors examined each individual set of articles to find emergent themes that addressed CRT and storytelling as advantages and critiques. Results illuminated two major themes across the systematic literature review: harmful and detrimental language in SBP scholarship and theory to practice vs. practice to theory SBP tensions.

The authors provide some key recommendations for practitioners and administrations to implement when supporting SBP students. One key recommendation is to: re-shift admission decision deficit language for SBP participants to an asset base language (i.e., summer bridge scholar). This systematic literature review highlighted that researchers, scholars, and practitioners must eradicate deficit language messages and approaches within SBP. Additionally, SBP must re-examine their programmatic goals and outcomes using critical frameworks such as anti-deficit achievement framework and CRT to create an environment where Black students are thriving in abundance of campus resources and support.

Authors

• Quortne R. Hutchings, Northern Illinois University
  Presenting Author

• Johnnie Campbell, Loyola University Chicago
  Presenting Author